I Am My Own Knight

Chapter Eight: Female Company

Lily was sure she didn't hear him correctly.

Georgina spoke Lily's own first thought: "Excuse me?"

"Our dormitory," Sirius repeated. "It's the only place I can think of where we'll have complete privacy. Unless you have a better idea."

"We can't go up there," Lily said. "What if we get caught?"

"Who's going to catch you?"

"I don't know. Maybe some other student could come in and tell on us."

"Lily, we're seventh-year Gryffindors. Nobody comes in our room without our permission. And even if they did, you could just put on your scary Head Girl face and they would never say a word."

Lily wasn't convinced, but Georgina seemed to be, and without knowing exactly how it happened, Lily soon found herself ushered into the seventh-year boys' dormitory. She wasn't sure she should raise her eyes from the rug. She did look up, however, when a strangled sort of shriek and a thump sounded nearby.

Peter Pettigrew sat straight up in the middle of his four poster bed, his mouth hanging open and a large book, open and crumpled, lay on the floor in front of him. Black ink from an upset inkwell was pooling in the rug.

"What's going on?" James said from the other side of the room. He was sitting in a window seat, partially obscured by the drapes; a worn-looking Quaffle was in his lap and a deep frown creased his face.

"We're having a meeting," Sirius told him.

"Couldn't you do it somewhere else?"

"It's highly classified," Sirius explained. "It has to be here. Besides, would you come if it were any place else?"

James didn't answer and Sirius proceeded to motion Lily and Georgina towards one of the beds, clearing a place for them to sit down.

"Now before we begin," Sirus said, "the vow."

All four boys raised their right hands.

"Forgive us," said Remus said to the girls. "This sounds a bit juvenile, but it must be done. Go ahead and raise your right hands, if you will."

Lily glanced between the boys and then at Georgina. They both raised their hands as well, feeling rather foolish.

Sirius cleared his throat and spoke in a clear, solemn voice. "I solemnly swear on my honour as a Gryffindor, and as a Marauder, that I will protect these secrets at all cost, and that should I betray this sacred trust I will break my wand and drown myself in the Slytherin toilets, never to show my face in Gryffindor Tower again. All in agreement, say aye."

"Aye," the others chorused. They looked at the girls.

"Aye?" Lily said. Georgina said it, too, accompanied by a giggle, and Lily had to bite her lips hard in order to avoid laughing.

"So is this, like, the secret society of Gryffindor boys, or what?" Georgina asked.

"Something like that," Remus said. He pulled up a chair near a desk and opened up a large book where he began to write. "What's the date today?"

"Eleventh of December," Peter answered. He seated himself on the bed facing Lily and Georgina.

Sirius sat down beside him. "So what is this highly classified information that Remus mentioned?"

They looked at Georgina, but she pointed at Lily. "Ask Lily. It happened to her."

Placed on the spot like that, Lily raked her brain for where to begin. "Oh, well, let's see. I suppose you want to hear about the Prefects lounge, then. Alright." Lily folded her hands in her lap. "Well, a while back I was in the Prefects lounge alone when Severus Snape came in. He didn't see me because I was lying on that sofa at the back of the room. I heard him talking to somebody in the Floo." Lily didn't think she had ever seen these boys show so much undivided attention. "They were talking about helping You-Know-Who. The man said that You-Know-Who was angry with someone, but that he was pleased with Snape. They were talking about some kind of mission. They want to get their hands on something, and they want Snape to help them when they find it. And then the man asked Snape if he knew how to use the Unforgivable curses." Lily lowered her voice to a whisper. "And Snape said he did."

While Lily had been speaking, James had drawn closer to the group and leaned against a nearby bedpost, listening with intense concentration. "Did anybody see you in there at any point?" he asked.

"Yes, a bunch of Hufflepuffs came in while Snape was still there. I waited for a while after he left before I showed myself, but the others saw me."

If possible, James frowned even more. "So it's possible he could find out that you overheard."

"That's why I haven't told anyone but Georgina."

Remus was scribbling in the book before him. "Did they give any hint as to what they are trying to get?" he asked.

"I've thought that over a hundred times and I can't figure it out. The only thing they said was that it couldn't be touched with anything but gold. But that could be any number of things."

"Knowing Snape," Peter said, "I'll bet it's some kind of potion ingredient."

"That's what we thought too," said Georgina.

"But that doesn't really narrow it down," Lily added. "All it tells us is that they need whatever it is to be extraordinarily pure."

"How do you know that?" Remus asked.

"Everything an ingredient touches leaves some amount of magical imprint on it; that's what makes potion making so complex at in the higher forms. But pure gold leaves the smallest imprint of all. It's ideal for handling substances that must remain totally pure of external magical influences."

"When did this happen?" James asked.

"Oh a while back." It had been the day James' mum had died, if she was being specific. "Mid-October, I guess."

He looked surprised. "And you're just telling us about it now?"

"There was a lot going on at the time, wasn't there?"

An awkward silence followed, and James looked away, working his jaw.

Remus broke the tension. "We've got to step up our surveillance on Snape."

"You have Snape under surveillance?" Georgina arched an eyebrow in surprise.

"Of course."

Sirius chuckled. "You didn't think we just let the likes of him run around without supervision, did you?"

There was a short rapping on the door and the girls looked at each other in alarm. Lily had a wild thought of leaping under the bed.

"Stay put," Sirius told them. He crossed over to the door, unbuttoning his shirt on the way. He mussed up his hair with both hands and then opened the door just a few inches to look out.

"What?" he barked.

"Um..." a boy's hesitating voice could be heard in the stairwell. "Hiya, Sirius. I wondered if...well you promised to show me some duelling tricks this afternoon."

Sirius leaned his face against the doorframe and groaned. "I forgot about that. Listen Nick, I'm kind of busy right now. Do you mind if we do it tomorrow?"

"Sure, what ever you want."

"Thanks." Sirius started to close the door but Nick spoke again.

"Can I come in and look at that Quidditch play book? James said I could as long as it didn't leave the room."

"Not right now, mate. I told you I'm busy. I've got company...female company," Sirius said, his voice full of insinuation.

Lily thought she could feel the boy blushing all the way though the door. Or, maybe that was Lily's own reddening face.

"Oh!" the boy exclaimed. "Sorry. I'm really sorry, Sirius. I'll leave you alone - well not alone but...yeah. Okay. Sorry. Bye!"

Sirius closed the door and locked it. When he turned to face them, he wore a broad smile. "The truth shall set you free," he said, and began to button up his shirt. Lily tried not to watch.

Georgina, however, was staring at him. "You are really scary sometimes, you know that?" she told him.

Sirius shrugged and slipped back onto the bed, wearing a smug grin.

She shook her head. "Anyway, ever since this...well...incident," Georgina said, "Lily and I have been trying to find out what we can about Snape. We wanted to have some proof before we went to a professor about this, but we haven't been able to come up with anything."

"If we go to anyone without proof," Lily added, "there will be an inquiry and Snape will find out it was me who heard his conversation. He can just deny it happened and nobody could prove otherwise. I don't like the idea of Snape having a special vendetta against me."

Remus looked up from his notes. "So you're looking for proof that Snape is what...working for You-Know-Who?"

"Exactly," Lily said. "James, a while back you were telling me how something happened to Snape over the summer..." Lily trailed off when Sirius, Remus, and Peter all rounded on James with looks of dismay.

"Prongs," Sirius said. "You told?"

"The vow of secrecy was supposed to include girls too," Peter said.

"You told?" Sirius repeated.

"No," James insisted. "I mean, I might have...hinted....but..."

"You can't hint, Prongs. Not even to impress girls. It's the rule."

"Shut-it, Sirius. I didn't tell her anything, okay?"

"You told her enough that she asked about it."

"Lay off, will you," James said. "She doesn't know what happened. She's under the vow now, anyhow. So - "

"So what? She wasn't sworn at the time."

"Forget it, both of you," Remus said, rising from his seat. "Quick huddle!"

The four boys bent their heads together and spoke for several minutes in hushed voices. Lily and Georgina strained their ears to hear while trying to appear disinterested, but Lily couldn't catch enough words to make any sense of their discussion.

When they broke apart, the boys all looked somewhat nervous as they returned to their seats. Sirius sat on the edge of the bed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, working his fingers together between them.

"Don't forget that you are under a vow of secrecy," he said. "You can't tell anybody about this. Ever." He waited for their motion of assent and took a deep breath. "Over the summer, James and I happened to observe Snape in the company of known Death Eaters. He had all the marks of being roughed up - the bruises, the exhaustion - and he looked really pleased about it. It was like he'd been through some heinous kind of initiation."

"We're pretty sure he joined them," James added. "That he became a Death Eater, that is."

Lily was fascinated. "Where did you see this?"

Sirius frowned. "We can't tell you that."

"Oh!" She glanced between Sirius and James, and decided not to push it. "How did you avoid being caught, then?"

"We can't tell you that either."

Lily frowned and looked at Georgina - she looked disconcerted as well. "Did you tell any adults?" Lily asked.

"We can't," Sirius told her. "They would ask the same questions you just did."

Lily didn't like the sound of this. "Wouldn't it be worth it to just tell them?"

"Not if we'd end up in prison."

"Now who's telling too much?" James snapped.

Lily was stunned. "What did you two do?" She couldn't help but ask.

Sirius smiled at her. "Don't worry your pretty little head about that. We've told you all that we can about it, and you've sworn not to repeat it. Any questions?"

"Sure, but you aren't answering them."

He smiled even more. "Now you're getting the idea. And don't try to wheedle information out of James later on. He can be a bit soft, but - "

"Shut-it, Sirius."

"So, basically," Remus said, "we used to suspect that Snape was one of them, and now we're certain of it."

"What are we supposed to do about that if we can't tell anyone?" Georgina asked.

"We figure out what he is up to on our own," Sirius explained. "We'll step up our surveillance and let you know when we come up with anything. In the meantime, you two try to stay out of his way."

Lily gaped at him. "Excuse me?"

"What do you mean, stay out of the way?" Georgina said. "We aren't useless, you know."

Lily felt the same indignation. "We want to help."

The boys all looked at one another, amused, and Lily's blood began to stir.

"We've got a system down that works really well for the four of us," James explained. "And it's not really all that secretive. Part of the object is to let him know he's being watched. Even if we changed it to include you, Snape would notice. You said yourself that you don't want him to target you."

Georgina leaned in to whisper in Lily's ear. "He's right about that, you know. Just wait. We'll find our own way to do our part. You'll see."

Lily was disappointed, but she tried not to show it. James looked relieved by her simple capitulation. She noticed that her stomach was growling and glanced at her watch. It was dinnertime already. "Okay then," Lily said, and stood up. "Is anybody hungry? Because I think dinner started ages ago."

There was a general round of eager interest in dinner. Remus put away his notebook and Peter laced up his shoes while Sirius shrugged his robes back over his shoulders. Lily noticed that he was watching James, who had turned towards the window and was taking his Quaffle back into his hand.

"James," Lily said. "Will you walk me to dinner?" She was a bit startled by how quiet the room became, and wondered if she'd been too obvious in her attempt to get him to come down to eat.

James stared at her for a moment with an odd look on his face, before he nodded and put down his Quaffle.

Pleased, Lily smoothed out her robes and draped her cloak over her arm. "Oh, here's your glove back, Sirius." Lily tugged the rolled up gloves out of her cloak pocket and handed Sirius' back to him. "Thank you for that. I lost mine last weekend and I've really missed it."

"Not at all. Do you want a complete set to borrow until you can get a new pair?" He didn't wait for an answer, but opened up a trunk and rummaged through it, finally emerging with a pair of brown leather gloves. "Take these. There's no need for you to go around freezing your hands off."

"Oh, um, thanks. Are you sure you don't need them?"

"I never wear them. I promise."

Satisfied with that answer, Lily took them, grateful for the prospect of having warm hands until she could rummage around the house for her old pair during the holidays.

James had moved nearer to her and watched her hands as she pulled the gloves on, trying them out. They were much too big, but they were very soft and well-worn. She wondered if he might forget about them and she could keep them.

Peter was sent down the stairs to make sure the coast was clear, and once he gave the word, James led Lily out of the tower and on down to dinner.

Sirius couldn't have looked happier.